Lawrence Washington

Lawrence Washington (1718-July 1754) was a member of the House of Burgesses from 1744 to 1752, a founder of the Ohio Company of Virginia, and the beloved older half-brother of George Washington. He was the founder of the town of Alexandria in Virginia and the estate of Mount Vernon, named after his War of Jenkins' Ear commanding officer Edward Vernon. He died of tuberculosis in 1754, and his estate was inherited by his half-brother.

Biography
Lawrence Washington was born in Virginia and was a mentor of sorts to his more famous half brother, George Washington. Lawrence was educated in England, where he was recruited into the Templar Order by Grand Master Reginald Birch. Lawrence returned to Virginia in 1738 to oversee his father's plantation on the Potomac River and to seek out Precursor allies. In 1739, the British parliament created an infantry for its American colonies, to be used in their conflict against Spain in the West Indies. Lawrence Washington arrived in Jamaica in 1741 and saw action in the expeditions against Cartagena, New Granada, Cuba, and Panama. Many casualties in these conflicts were the result of disease rather than violence. Because he arrived in the tropics early, he managed to survive fevers that decimated the other American colonists. Upon his return to the American colonies, Washington became a militia commander at the rank of Major.

Washington married Anne Fairfax in 1743. In 1747, he, his father-in-law, and other prominent businessmen began to work together, with the goal of opening trade to the American interior. Lawrence was diagnosed with tuberculosis and traveled to Barbados with his younger brother George in an attempt to help his health. George caught a minor case of smallpox, and Lawrence used the opportunity to travel to Port-au-Prince on Templar business. Lawrence returned to his Mount Vernon home in July 1752. His younger brother George eventually inherited and took over management of the Mount Vernon plantation.

During the 1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake, Washington succeeded in stealing the Precursor box from the Haitian Assassins, but was unable to decode it, lacking the Voynich manuscript. Washington found out that the manuscript could translate the foreign signs on the box, so he sent James Wardrop to find it, while Smith looked over the box from his encampment at Terra Nova in Newfoundland. Meanwhile, Lawrence retired to his estate, where he held a night party in July of 1754.

Already stricken down by illness, Washington made a weak target for the rival Assassin Order. After he ended a meeting with Smith and Wardrop, he headed to converse with some party guests. Assassin Shay Cormac ran up behind him and stabbed him in the back with his hidden blades, killing him. Washington was already weak, and thanked Shay for making his death quicker - his allies had already escaped, so he did not worry.